Georgia Bulldogs Lead, Cal 4th After Day 1 (Points Comparisons)

A look at the performance of the top 10 teams after day 1 of the 2013 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships shows that while Georgia may have slipped a little bit from their morning seed overall, they still are well ahead of the pace at which they were seeded. That is a significant development for them, as seeds had them as the highest scoring team coming into the meet.

What’s more, the Bulldogs scored no diving points on day 1 of this meet, but as the boards go higher (3-meter on Friday, platform on Saturday), their scoring chances rapidly increase.

Tennessee, obviously, were the big winners on day 1, picking up 47.5 points over seed. Here’s the big question for them going into day 2: do they use Kelsey Floyd in the 200 free, which is her third event entry (as compared to the 50 that she normally swims), or do they scratch that so that she can swim all 5 relays? I think the answer is clear that she’s more valuable on the 800 free relay than in the 200 free individual event. The Volunteers stacked all of their relays on day 1 of this meet, so they’ll have to really start pushing up in individual events to keep the momentum going.

Arizona had a good first day as well. They’re only seeded to score 56 points on day 4 of this meet, but here’s the key: their 800 free relay seed is pretty atrocious, but not indicative of their true potential. Margo Geer is going to swim all 5 relays at this meet instead of the 200 free individually, so they should definitely out-score that number.

Cal is 4th, 61 points behind Georgia, but all hope is not lost. That’s because they are seeded to score 161 points on Friday: about 43 more than Georgia. Florida is also expected to have a big second day of this meet. Tennessee will need diving points again to keep pace.